MEDFORD, Ore. – An incident report about the devastating 2020 wildfires in the Rogue Valley has been publicly released.
On September 8 of last year, the Almeda Fire and South Obenchain Fire started less than 25 miles from each other, displacing thousands of residents and causing the deaths of three people. Since then, investigators have been trying to piece together exactly what happened and why.
On June 2, 2021, Jackson County released the once-confidential “Jackson County Fire Incidents After Action Report.”
The report delves into the planned procedures in the event of such an emergency and how they played out in real life, reviewing the response and communications that are essential to first responders.
According to the report, one of the strengths identified was a “rapid response from multiple disciplines and agencies.” Among the agencies identified was Jackson County Emergency Management, whose manager was out of a job just four months after the fire. During the fires, JCEM chose to use the county’s Everbridge-provided “citizen alert” phone notification system instead of using a county-wide emergency alert system or “EAS.”
The Everbridge “citizen alert” system only works if you’re already signed up for it or have a landline telephone in the alert area. However, after a public records request, NBC5 News learned that Talent never received an alert at all. Most evacuees were given little to no notice, oftentimes getting knocks on doors from firefighters themselves. “To me, that’s the best alert you can get, when somebody is pulling you from a burning building and saving your life,” said Jackson County Sheriff Nate Sickler during a press conference. The sheriff’s office defended the non-deployment of the EAS, citing traffic as an issue.
Head of the Emergency Operations Center John Vial said other cities have been criticized for using the EAS because, he claimed, most people get information from their phones.
The report states that at the time of the emergency, only one person in Jackson County had the training and access to the citizen alert system: then-emergency manager Stacey Anderson-Belt. She released a statement to us in October about the county’s response to the fire. She said decisions about notices are based on multiple factors and no single individual makes them. She went on to say, “Learning what was done well and what could have gone better will be a great learning asset for our community. I know people are hurting and upset and looking for answers. While we were doing everything we could to help, we know our performance may have fallen short of public expectations during this unprecedented fire event and we are working hard to help our citizens recover as we move forward.”
According to findings, Anderson-Belt was the only Jackson County Emergency Management staff member at the time of the incident and there was one vacant position. By the time the report was released, a new emergency manager was installed but the position of deputy emergency manager was still left unfilled.
The report goes on to say situational awareness can be improved. “County EOC responders were challenged to gather situational awareness in the early hours of the fire incidents,” the report stated. “The intensity and speed of the fire coupled with so many agencies responding and the difficulty in establishing command posts resulting in a lack of centralized flow of information.”
Findings revealed there was poor communication between county emergency management and city leaders, creating a gap of understanding about what was happening on the ground. Local jurisdictions, the report implies, simply didn’t know who was in charge. Some county staff reportedly didn’t even know where the Jackson County Emergency Operation Center was or what its role is in a response.
The report’s authors stated, “The County would greatly benefit from a full staff and possibly a more robust emergency management program with additional staff positions and a focus on county-wide planning, training, and exercising.”
In a statement about the post-fire response, support for evacuees at the Expo was lauded by the report, which stated Expo staff and county personnel “coordinated to ensure needed services were provided to residents affected by the fires.”
The exact causes of the Almeda and South Obenchain Fires are still under investigation.
The report was presented by consulting firm Innovative Emergency Management.
NBC5 News is working on more details about the report and reaching out to local officials for their reactions. Check HERE for updates.
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